Meanwhile, in Biology...

I freely admit, this blog is pretty focused on only one brand of science- Computer Science.  This is clearly because computer science is just better than all the other sciences.  Obviously.

And not at all because computer science is what I do every day.  Of course not.  That'd just be silly.

However, although I have looked into artifical life before, I don't give the other branches of science their dues.  And for this, I apologize.  Not that science needs it- scientists are like Mother Nature's little nerdy disciples.  We worship her in the form of esoteric equations and get very, very excited when we think we've got a little tiny bit of her figured out.

But spiders are so cool with their poison fangs and evolution-honed body meant for killing things.  I don't get why other people are scared of them at all.

Scientists are special people.  We walk the fine line between "crazy" and "bat-shit insane" and at some point decided to use our innate lunacy for the forces of good and try to understand this universe we live in, rather than going postal on a city block.

The fact that life, the universe, and everything is infinitely complex and will probably never be fully understood by human minds only makes us want to try harder, because APPLES, DAMNIT.

Back to biology.  Remember that wooly mammoth thigh bone that paleontologists found back in august?  Well, it turns out that there was perfectly persevered bone marrow in there.  You know what bone marrow contains?
I'll give you one guess- the religious right goes absolutely ballistic whenever you mention it.

Occupy Wall Street?

Pretty close, actually, but not quite what I was going for.  Bone marrow contains stem cells, which are the types of cells that can be grown into any other cells.  But most importantly, these cells have been so well preserved that we can see their nuclei.

Which means, biologists are going to try to clone it.  They think that if they replace an elephant's egg cell's nucleus with one of the ones from the woolly mammoth fossil, we can get a living, breathing woolly mammoth.

What kind of relevant research data will this provide?  Badass, that's what!  Have you seen Jurassic Park?  For the first time ever, it's not just sorta, kinda like that.  This is exactly like that, except with ancient elephants instead of dinosaurs.  And the biologists think they can get it in just five years.

You're getting a five year time table in which people are going to bring something back from extinction that has been dead for the entire span of recorded human history.  How is this not the greatest thing you've heard all day, exactly?

This, walking the Earth again.  Balls yes.

Now, I know what your thinking.  "But, Relimited, how can I get in on the inevitable high stakes gambling that's bound to occur as people bet on which country will have the mammoth in a zoo first?"

Never fear, I got your back, you can place your bets here.  Also, you can bet on when the mammoth will actually be cloned, playing the odds against the scientists' predictions.  And yes, I plan on getting one after their domesticated and riding to work on its back.